I have been thinking about the word "unconditional" a lot this year. As I delve deep into the issues of homeless LGBTQ youth, I often hear the youth say that what they are most missing are consistent adults in their lives, ones who can provide a safety net -- and unconditional support.

Danny was never able to forget what it meant to be a homeless teen. He overcame homelessness and built a good life for himself, but he bore the scars in his psyche, and in his body. He contracted hepatitis while he was homeless; it shortened his life.

I helped kicked off a tweet storm last week, and frankly no one was more surprised than I that it snowballed as it did. As of this writing, the #DefendTheDuggars social media campaign has delivered almost $25,000 to help the homeless LGBTQ youth population in Arkansas.

LGBTQ teen homelessness is an often-overlooked aspect of the national struggle for equality. Of the nearly 2 million teens affected by homelessness each year, an estimated 40 percent of them identify as LGBTQ.

I have been talking with homeless kids from all over the country, asking them to help us understand what it means to be left on the streets, asking them to give witness to what they endure. I ask you to look into their traumatized eyes and listen with me to their heartbreaking testimonies.

My brother and sister were out in the living room. I remember calling them into the bedroom and explaining to them that I was leaving. I had to go. When my sister asked why, I shared, "Remember how Mom always kicks me out of the house and calls me a faggot and stuff?"

Just in the last few weeks, Raven-Symoné, Darren Young and Troye Sivan each proclaimed his or her sexual identity to the world. It's great to hear positive celebrity coming-out stories, but I also know that many teenagers who come out of the closet may end up on the streets.

HIV prevention efforts directed at homeless youths typically focus on condom distribution and HIV prevention education. But focusing on condoms and awareness without responding to the lack of shelter, which forces homeless youths into survival sex, is a failed policy.

Most solutions to the problem of youth homelessness center around increased shelter services, but we have established a three-tiered approach that is multidimensional and holistic; each part is important in its own right but ineffective without the others.

The satirical article described the mindset of a homophobic couple who, upon learning that their daughter is gay, sought to put her up for adoption. Those who believed the story did so because, even though the story is fake, the mindset it describes is painfully and horrifically real.

The police photographed my nose, my eye, my face and my arms. They documented the bruises. Then I saw my father arrive at the station in steel handcuffs. I will never forget that image, because it was the only time in all the years of abuse that I saw him arrested.

LGBT people wear invisible duct tape over our mouths every day -- not as a publicity stunt but as a mode a survival. We remain silent to avoid personal and familial rejection, to keep our jobs and our homes and to protect our physical safety. Our fear is real.

For the past two years I've worked on a project called "Homeless for the Holidays," interviewing and photographing homeless LGBT youth during the winter months as they sleep on the streets of NYC, so frankly, it infuriates me that our mayor would say that "no one is sleeping on the streets."

On Wednesday nights a group of trans and gender-nonconforming young adults makes a lengthy trek to the Broadway Youth Center in Lakeview. They gather for Trans Youth and Resource Advocacy (TYRA) meetings, a space for safety and discussion.

There are a lot of people working hard and spending a lot of money to make religion a hazard to LGBT people. Many other people of faith may deeply disagree with that treatment. However, when people of faith stand idly by, faith will continue to be a more of a hazard than a benefit.

As LGBT youth come out at younger ages, thousands are driven from their homes by rejecting families. And in a society that has grown increasingly unwilling to support a safety net for the most vulnerable, they are forced to endure homelessness and destitution.

Being homeless is one of the worst things can happen to someone. I know because I have been there. In 2004, at the age of 20, my circumstances changed dramatically, and I was made homeless one week before Christmas. I was devastated, and it was a dark period in my life.